r/virtualization • u/Lemonades99 • 2d ago
I've open-sourced my AHV Remote Console side project
About five months ago, I posted here about getting copy/paste working in a custom Nutanix AHV VM console.
This started as a side project for an internal use case. I wanted a better way to work with VM consoles, especially when the guest wasn't reachable over the network.
I've now made the entire project open source:
https://github.com/MarcoCarvin/ahv-remote-console
It's a desktop application for Windows, Linux and macOS that opens VM consoles through Prism, with separate windows for each VM, Prism authentication (including SSO), ISO mounting and automatic reconnection.
The main thing I wanted to get working was a proper shared clipboard between the workstation and the VM, similar to VMware Remote Console. Copy something on your workstation and paste it into the guest, or copy something inside the guest and paste it back on your workstation. No simulated keystrokes or one-way text-pasting workaround.
The clipboard works through the console channel, so it doesn't depend on being able to reach the guest over the network. This is particularly useful when working with isolated VMs or guests connected through a full-tunnel VPN.
Clipboard sharing requires an additional module on the AHV hosts and an agent inside the guest VM. Without those components, the application still works as a regular remote console.
One important caveat: the host module installs a libvirt hook and modifies the AHV hosts. It's not part of AHV and isn't supported or endorsed by Nutanix. It may affect support arrangements or break after AHV upgrades, so read the documentation, keep the rollback steps handy, and test in a lab before deploying it.
I built this to solve a problem in our own environment, not as a commercial product. I've published the code under the Apache 2.0 license in case it's useful to other people running AHV or someone wants to take a look at how it works.
Repository: https://github.com/MarcoCarvin/ahv-remote-console







